Hello, I’m Your New Neighbor. (Fly Me to Austin)

Ayaka Nakama, a dancer based in Kobe, Japan, brings her site-specific walking performance to the streets of Austin for its US premiere at Fusebox Festival 2026. Hello, I’m Your New Neighbor. is an invitation to share a moment and a street together. A route that would normally take ten minutes is expanded into an hour-long journey through a series of detours, pauses, and quiet observations. As you walk alongside Nakama, the urban landscape begins to reveal itself in new ways. By embracing the inherent unpredictability of the city—the shifting weather, the rhythm of the streets, and the people we happen to pass—this walk may become an exercise in facing the uncertainty and fragmentation of reality. Originally conceived as a "hello" to the neighborhood where she lives and works in Kobe, the project explores the modest practice of simply being present with others. This project focuses on moving forward while remaining mindful of the distances between us. Fostering the imagination to welcome others, and to be welcomed in return, acts as a supple form of resistance and a way to envisage a different future. Participants are invited to surrender to the walk. Where have you come from, and where are you headed? Perhaps it is in the subtle presence of someone walking right beside us that we might discover our shared future.